The One with the First Birthday Party

We celebrated Liam's birthday on Memorial Day weekend with all of our family and friends.

The theme for the party was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, based on the book by Eric Carle.  I have always loved this children's book and I thought the bright colors would be so fun for his party.  Plus, I could sneak in my love of polka dots without making it too girly!

I worked with awesome shops on Etsy and was able to have some great items customized for the party.

The invitation was from LCDesigns615 and Lisa was very accommodating with my changes and requests.  She is doing a thank you card for us too.

I found a shop that had a whole VHC themed decor package that included signs and labels and favor tags.  This was super helpful because, while I knew I was crafty enough to put decor items together, I really didn't have the time or the ability to design all the items.

Kiyomi Designs was another awesome shop and there were both generic and personalized items that came with the package.  I didn't use them all, but here are a few pictures of the items we did use.

Treat bags filled with Skittles

Bug catchers (yay Dollar Tree!) filled with gummy worms for the kiddos

 Signs for the doors

A caterpillar using Liam's monthly photos

Close up of the beginning of the caterpillar

The banner we hung right above the food table

Liam's outfit for the day came from Tutu Kute and was so very adorable!

This is one of the only pictures I have of him where you can see most of it.  His name was underneath the caterpillar.

I also had a birthday poster made that we used for Liam's one-year pictures a few weeks ago.  We hung it up at his party, even though some of the info had changed (like his 8 teeth have now become 12 and his cruising around the furniture has turned into running around the house!).

From PhiloDesignz

I was tempted to do the foods from the VHC but with 50+ people coming to the house, it was going to be rather challenging to serve plums, salami and cherry pie (to name a few) that the caterpillar eats as opposed to good ol' fashioned hamburgers and hot dogs.

So, we did a cook out with the typical salads and sides and everyone enjoyed eating and mingling.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that donut cakes are a pretty serious tradition around here.  Allie's Donuts makes the most amazing cakes in the world and we have them for every celebration in this family.  Therefore, it was only fitting that they would do a caterpillar cake for Liam's birthday.  We also had a caterpillar made from cupcakes and a smash cake caterpillar head for Liam made by my very talented colleague at school.

Liam did have cake on the weekend of his birthday when we did his one-year pictures and cake smash, so he had tasted cake before.  He didn't dig right in, but with a zillion people snapping pictures and talking to him, I think he was a little stunned.  For the most part, we fed the cake to him, but he did dig around in it a bit.

We were blessed with a beautiful day and had so much fun celebrating with so many of our family and friends.  Liam is very lucky to have so many amazing people in his life!